Why You Might Want to Head to Eastern Europe for Your Next Cleanse

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Photo: Courtesy of @kuznetskymost20

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Photo: Courtesy of @kuznetskymost20

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Photo: Courtesy of Ресторан Fresh Москва / @freshrestaurant

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Photo: Courtesy of Vegano Hooligano

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Photo: Courtesy of Vegan Boom

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The idea of healthy eating isn’t such a far-out concept for those living in post-Soviet countries: In mountainous regions, people will forage for mushrooms when they are season; plenty of generations will still pickle or ferment antioxidant-rich cabbage, garlic, and tomatoes in preparation for the colder months; and pensioners often dot the sidewalks, peddling fresh fruits and vegetables from their garden for extra cash. Aside from traditional practices when it comes to fresh eating in Eastern Europe, just last year, Russia’s President Vladimir Putin banned GMOs from all food produced in the country and in a response to the tense political climate with America, also pledged to become the world’s biggest producer of organic food.

Coupled with the politics and Slavic dietary traditions, there is also a boom of trendy, health-focused restaurants. Just a few months ago during my down time from Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Russia, I worked remotely in Moscow’s KM20 concept shop. At one point, I texted my once-beer-guzzling friend-in-crime who I had studied with in St. Petersburg, “Lol, I’m detoxing,” I wrote to her, as I sipped on a sweet red juice made of pineapple, beets, and fennel. “In Rossiya . . .” See, KM20, in addition to being a place that boasts racks of J.W.Anderson and Gosha Rubchinskiy, is a healthy-eaters oasis by way of the motherland. Its menu even sounds fresh, dotted with options that I would blow a whole paycheck on in the States: Fresh kombucha topped with chia seeds, juices titled “Pink,” with apple, red cabbage, and green veggies, and a salad with baked pumpkin, polenta cakes, sundried tomato, and basil pesto. During my jet-lagged mornings, I would even pop in to buy a “super shot,” a teeny glass of orange, carrot, ginger, and turmeric. The best part, at least for me, as a Westerner indulging in the sharp Russian rouble drop? That fresh kombucha is roughly three dollars.

Moscow It girl Olga Karput started the cafe-meets-concept-store in 2009. “My main reason [for creating KM20], was that this was the dietary choice I was following for long time already and I felt like there were no places in Moscow where I could actually enjoy the food,” says Karput. And luckily for KM20, the options for leafy produce in Russia are plenty. “It is a mix-and-match game in Russia, especially after all the sanctions were introduced. We do try to source most of the foods locally, depending on the season,” says Karput. “And this summer we plan to experiment a lot with Russian superfoods that no one actually thinks about such as wild plants, spruces, dandelions, and nettle—that we have a lot of!” In addition to KM20, there is also Fresh, a restaurant in four different Moscow locations created by Irina Azarova. For her, she has seen an increase in demand for healthy food starting about two years ago; when she opened her business in 2012, there was barely a market. “We faced difficulties finding necessary ingredients,” she writes, adding, “We are in constant search of suppliers. We use local products, and we are trying to invest in growing fresh vegetables specially for us.”

Russia isn’t the only country experiencing a spike in healthy eating. A few days later, I end up in Kiev for Ukraine Fashion Week. And I come to find out that the city is brimming with healthy, vegetable-based options as well. There is Vegano Hooligano, a vegan restaurant created in 2011 by Rudolf Krajewski, with locations in both Kiev and Odessa, as well as a food truck. “The year 2010 could be considered as the year when the first vegetarian places started to emerge,” says Krajewski. “Since then, the amount of such places doubles annually.” An offshoot of the restaurant is the new Kyiv Vegan Boom, a two-day festival that saw more than 10,000 visitors its first day.

Like Russia, as far as sourcing produce, much of it is easy access for Kiev’s Vegano Hooligano. “The majority of supplies comes from local producers which is extremely good. Vegano Hooligano buys imported fruits and vegetables from Turkey and Israel, only in winter,” says Krajewski. “Currently, they are urging local producers to keep growing fruits and vegetables in cold seasons, too.” Still, when I ask my friend, Kiev-resident and fashion editor Olga Yanul, about the booming trend of healthy eating, she gives me some cheeky insight. “We still have a lot of babushkas on the market,” she says of the elderly women selling morning-picked produce from their garden. “They are basically doing the same thing as organic.” Turns out, the veggie-based revolution may not have been a revolution after all when it comes to Eastern Europe.